Seattle -- The New Orleans Saints haven't faced a more daunting
challenge than the one they will encounter Saturday afternoon in the Pacific
Northwest.

The Seattle Seahawks have been the NFC's best team all season and own the NFL's most decided home-field advantage.

Since they began playing at CenturyLink Field in 2002, the
Seahawks own an NFL-best 71-31 record in regular-season and postseason games. They have lost only one game there the
past two years and are 5-1 all-time in the postseason, a mark which includes five
consecutive wins by an average score of 30-18.

As formidable as the task appears, the Saints can win this
thing. But there is scant margin for error in their NFC divisional playoff game
against the Seahawks on Saturday.

They can't win if Drew Brees throws a bunch of
interceptions. They can't win if the defense fails to prevent Marshawn Lynch
from going "Beast Mode" on them. And they can't win if they don't have a better
plan to deal with the infamous 12th Man.

If they do all of those things, they'll be in this one until
the end. Which should come as no surprise for a team that's had six games
decided in the final minute, including three wins as time expired.

The Saints' recipe for success was exhibited against Philadelphia, where New Orleans followed
the exact script needed to win a road playoff game in January. The Saints played suffocating
defense, controlled the clock and the line of scrimmage, limited mistakes and
dominated field position. For the most part, they played left-handed and won.

The Saints' 26-24 victory wasn't a work of art. But road
playoff wins rarely are. You take them any way you can get them. Survive
and advance is the motto.

This week, too, figures to be a four-quarter fistfight. The
forecast calls for lots of wind and rain, neither of which is particularly
conducive to offensive football. Points will be difficult to come by.

With that in mind, Brees and Sean Payton must practice
patience. They must betray their aggressive instincts and not force matters.

The field goal is their friend. This is one instance when it's
OK to settle. Seattle averaged only 19 points a game down the stretch. Shayne Graham kicked four field goals for Houston in a 19-13
playoff win against Cincinnati last year. Something similar might do the trick
against the conservative-minded Seahawks.

I haven't been privy to the Saints' meetings this week. But
I've got a good idea what points Payton has emphasized to his players.

I'm sure he's mentioned the fact that No. 1 seeds are only
11-9 in divisional games in the past decade and just 2-4 since 2010. I'm sure
the Seahawks' 0-4 mark in divisional games since 2006 made its way into his
message. And you can rest assured he's used the Dec. 2 meeting to his
advantage.

Both the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens avenged
regular-season defeats on the way to Super Bowl titles in the 2011 and 2012 seasons,
respectively. And who can forget how the Saints turned the tables on the St.
Louis Rams in 2000.

The previous Seahawks meeting was one of those nights that happen at
the elite level of pro sports competition. Every once in a while the stars align,
the mojo manifests itself in a certain way and everything goes right for one
side. Remember the Saints' magical 38-17 beatdown of the New England Patriots
in 2009? Dec. 2 was the gridiron gods' way of evening things out.

File the Seahawks' 34-7 mauling of the Saints in the "one of those nights"
category. As Seahawks coach Pete Carroll astutely pointed out this week, the
Saints were just a few inches away on a handful of plays from making that a
different game.

If the Seahawks don't recover Lynch's early red-zone fumble,
or if Brees's sack-fumble doesn't pop directly into Michael Bennett's arms, or if
Corey White doesn't let that interception slip through his mitts, who knows,
the game might have played out differently. Not saying the Saints would have
won. But it might not have been so lopsided.

The Saints can't afford another slow start. They need to err
on the side of caution and pick their spots to be aggressive.

As ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer noted Thursday, the Saints
have some advantages they can exploit against the Seahawks.

"I think the Saints can play better -- I know
they can play better," Dilfer said. "(Former NFL safety and
Fox analyst John Lynch and I) both agree that the Saints have some really
favorable matchups. It's whether they can get to them."

If they do, they have a legitimate chance to pull off the upset. The
longer the Saints stick around, the more the pressure flips to the Seattle
sideline.

And one final word of advice. Flush the green Gatorade down. Leave the new sweatsuits at home. Save the Popeyes for the charter
flight home.

Gimmicks aren't going to beat the Seahawks. Not at
CenturyLink Field. Not before a bloodthirsty, leather-lunged sellout crowd.

No, the Saints are going to need to play their best,
smartest, most fundamentally sound game of the season. And their best bet is to
take what they learned at the Linc and apply it at the CLink.